On the eastern side of the city, In front of the now-destroyed walls. Lying on the top of a pile of corpses, was a man with short black hair and a massive wound in his left shoulder.
With a 'Haaaaaaaahhhh!' Tao gasped loudly as his dark green eyes shot open. Through his eyes, he could see the beautiful dark star-lit night sky. As he lay there in wonder he thought. ' I'm alive?' With a smile on his face, he pumped his one good arm in the air and cheered. 'Xixi I'm coming home!'
With gritted teeth, he pushed himself up to a sitting position with his right hand. As his left shoulder hung limply at his side, with all feeling gone from it. As he got up to a sitting position he was shocked. In front of him, there was no wall anymore just a pile of rubble that was littered with corpses and pools of blood. Beyond the rubble massive fires raised. The entire city looked to be engulfed in flame with only the castle sitting atop the hill unaffected. Around him, birds feasted on the dead. He watched as birds pecked bodies, ripping their flesh from their bones and swallowed men's eyes whole.
With his right hand, he pushed himself up to his knees. Very slowly he got up to stand. Every movement caused great pain to his body. 'Where is everyone? How long has it been?' he mumbled to himself.
In order to understand the situation better he decided to climb up one of the defensive towers. Heading towards the tower he stepped over countless bodies of men and rats. To the best of his abilities, he tried to avoid the corpses, not wanting to disturb their slumber. It was said that disturbing the dead would bring their ghost back down to earth to curse you for all eternity.
Stepping over a corpse he stepped into a puddle of blood. He felt his foot touch something squishy. Lifting his leg he was disgusted to see his boots turned red with blood and intestines hanging off of them. With a small kick, he sent the intestines flying. Now more focused, he avoided the pools of blood as he walked. As he walked he could feel the heat of the fires, causing him to sweat.
Coming to the tower's roots he was greeted by a thick destroyed wooden door. In front of the door bodies of many rats lay, most had small wounds on their bodies, like they had been stabbed with spears. Some had arrows sticking out of them or slashes made by blades. Inside the tower bodies of men lay, covering the entrance and stairs. Clearly, a fierce battle was fought here. From the looks of things, the men had tried to get off the walls running away from something. But the rats had made it to the bottom door first and cut them off. At the central floor of the tower, they had fought back to back in a desperate last stand. But clearly, none of them had made it, all of them looked hideously disfigured with bits and pieces missing from their corpses. Almost as if a wild animal had eaten them. 'Who could have eaten them?' Tao thought in wonder.
The Humans and rats traveled in separate camps so he had never seen them eating. While raiding villages and small towns, they were merciful and they took many prisoners. Apparently, the prisoners were sent to the Underhive where they would be taken care of. Sure they were a bit brutal sending severed bodies over the wall. But they were equally so, as they also used rats. Though according to Xixi rats did like to eat meat but mostly ate green stuff found in the Underhive. All these thoughts made Tao confused, not knowing what to think.
Arriving at the top of the tower and exiting through the northern side. Tao saw the broken wall In front of him. On the still-standing small section of the wall were badly damaged bodies of Humans. All the bodies were either ripped into pieces or turned into a bunch of meatpaste. They seemed like they had tried to run from something. Most likely a Rat-ogre, he thought.
Standing on the small section of wall still left standing, he looked to the burning city. Hair black as night swayed in the wind as dark green eyes watched the city intensely. Not much could be seen but fire and smoke black as night covering the city. In the distance was the castle on a hill. Focusing he could see movement, fires of torches and what looked like arrows being shot down into the dark mass below. This dark mass moved like a living creature, creeping ever closer to the wall. Tao felt his blood boil, this was not some random mass of darkness. No. It was his rat comrades climbing the walls it had to be and they needed his help. Looking around the wall he saw the upper half of a dead peasant soldier. 'Excellent.' he thought to himself.
This peasant had a nice chest piece, a medieval cuirass as it was commonly called here. He was a recently deceased enemy soldier so it would not be that bad to disturb him. But still, he should be careful while taking his armor and he should say a few prayers before it.
After praying to Sighard to take care of this brave soldier's soul he went to work. He struggled as put the chest piece, not being able to use his now dead left arm. With the assistance of his right arm, he put the chest piece on. Then he took the man's arming sword. This was a good sword, usually meant only for knights. Maybe the man's father was a former knight, Tao thought. Lastly, he took the man's shield. Though his left arm didn't work he could still tie the shield to it.
Testing out his new equipment, he did a few fast swings with his sword. Little by little his body had recovered not so sore anymore.
'Iiiiiiiiiii! Help! Somebody help me please!' Came a young feminine voice from below. 'Shut, s-shut, up up! Stupid l-litle h-human!'
'L-lets eat, eat soft human!' 'No, no! All, all Soft Human should go, go to big mother. Yes, yes.' Looking over the wall he saw 2 Ratmen dragging a young teenage girl by her hair, as she stugled and screamed.
Seeing this harsh treatment of the teenage girl angered Tao greatly, with out thinking he leaned over the wall and yelled while pointing his sword at them. ' Hey, you! Unhand her you brigands! Now!'
'Man thing still a live?' one of them said looking up in shock.
'Mmmm, man things f-fingers look, look tasty! Eat, eat, Yes, yes!' Said the other one excitedly as it charged into the tower dagger in hand.
'No, no! Come here, here!' yelled the other one in frustration.
'My fingers, are tasty? Oh shit!' thought Tao to himself as he ran to the stairs to face the rat. Standing on the stairs Tao saw the rat coming. 'Stop! I'm on your side! I'm a Granadan! All I ask is you treat your prisoners with respect!' He yelled desperately.
The small black rat looked up at him with its red beating eyes and snickered. 'Kikikiki! Good good, You a Granadan man thing you say? Well in that case I can eat, eat, you, you. Yes yes! Kikikiki!' He laughed and charged up the stairs.
'Stay back!' Tao yelled pointing his sword forward. His face saddened, he didn't want to hurt the poor rat.
Uncaring of his words the rat charged. Dodging Tao's sword the rat got low, right under the sword and went for a stab. Seeing this Tao gritted his teeth and brought his sword down on the rat's shoulder. The rat's red eyes widened in shock as It fell to the stairs, with a pained squeal. 'Kiiiiiiiiiiiii!'
Shocked by the scene Tao pulled his sword out its shoulder and knelt next to it saying. ' I'm so sorry! I had to. Why wouldn't you stop. I-i i.....' He tried to rationalize.
Hearing these pathetic words the rat opened its eyes in anger and yelled 'Die Human!' gripped it's dagger hard, it thrust it straight into the man's stomach, without looking. With a loud 'Pang!' the knife hit Tao in his chest armor. Both of them looked at each other in shock.
Quickly Tao jumped up to his feet and kicked the rat hard, staggering it and sending some rat tooths flying, and without a second thought, he stabbed it in the head. The sword went straight through the skull, killing it instantly.
Tao felt his heart race and breathe thicken as adrenaline rushed through his veins. Looking at his victim in a daze, Tao was quickly brought back to reality when he heard a scream.
'Iiiiii! Don't kill me, please! Somebody anybody! Help me!' Without any hesitation, he ran past the rat corpse and the human corpses littering the stairs, down to the door. Coming outside he saw in the darkness of night, only lit by the starlight and the raging fires, a horrible scene. The rat held the girl by her short hair and held it's blade at her throat. The girl was on her knees as the rat towered a full two heads over her. She held her hands at the sides as the rat threatened her with it's knife. 'Don't move, move. Or I'll stick you. Yes, yes.'
With tears in her eyes, she looked up to see Tao standing there in the distance, looking at her. Seeing her chance finally arrive she grabbed the rats knife-wielding arm as hard as she could and pulled it down towards the ground. As she did so she lifted her well-toned little ass. The rats eyes widened, it all happened too fast for it to act. Holding the dagger-wielding hand close to her body, she went for an arm throw. The rat was lifted into the air and thrown to the stony bloody ground hard, knocking the air out of it. The dagger fell to the ground. Quickly she let go of the rat and took it's dagger. Using it to end it's rat life.
Tao just stood there stunned, watching the dark-haired teenage girl repeatedly stabbing the rat on the ground. The girl was strange, she wore men's clothing and had short hair, making her look almost like a boy. But the white t-shirt clearly had two protruding breasts and her pants had a nice jiggling butt contained within. On top of that, she had a beautiful hourglass-shaped body with a heart-shaped face and a cute voice.
Finally satisfied the girl stood up, now with her rat blood-stained appearance and turned to Tao. Looking at him With her hazel-colored eyes she said jokingly. 'Thanks for taking care of that other one and creating a nice distraction. Hopefully I didn't scare you too much with my weak little girl act.' She smiled proudly and flicked her short hair.
Tao's jaw dropped and eyes widened. The girl's white shirt was cut from the navel up to her collar, splitting the shirt in the middle. He could see her toned abs and her perky teenage breasts were completely exposed. She had D-cup breasts and beautiful small pink nipples.
She just stared at him strangely not understanding why he was so awe-struck, annoyed by his stare, she yelled at him. 'What are you looking at? What have you never seen a girl as awesome as me?' With hands on her slim hips, she stuck out her chest and flicked her hair arrogantly.
Tao blushed seeing her tits bounce and quickly looked away and scoffed. Then she felt it, the night breeze on her bare skin and her small nipple's hardening.
Feeling a shiver, she looked down and blushed hard. Quickly going to her knees she covered her chest and screamed. 'You perverted! You should have said something! Idiot! Dummy!'
Quickly Tao responded. 'I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't see anything. It's way too dark out here.' He lied.
Quickly she ripped a piece off of the rat's loincloth and wrapped it around her shirt keeping it in place, so that it covered her chest, somewhat. With her chest covered she sighed and said. 'It's fine. It's my fault anyway. I should have been more careful with that rat's blade. The little fucker didn't want let go of the blade as easily as I expected and managed to cut my shirt in the process.` she frowned but quickly cheered up and said happily while walking towards him. ´So anyway what are you doing here? Are you perhaps a scavenger? Not that I mind or anything, just curious.' she said with a carefree smile as she got close to him.
Hearing these words he looked towards the castle in the distance and at the dead eaten corpses of humans and answered. 'No I'm not a scavenger and I was just about to leave this city.'
Hearing this she smiled and clapped her hands in excitement and said. ' Yeii! Then we are headed in the same direction! Let's go, partner!'
Tao watched the strange girl confused, as she started to walk away, and commented. ' I never said where I am going and what do you mean partners? I don't even know your name.'
Hearing this she turned around and said mockingly. ' Ohh? And what? Are you just gonna go off into the distance alone, with that arm of yours? You know if you don't do something about that arm, it will soon get bad and it might even lead to your death. And anyways you owe me for peeking at my chest.'
Hearing this Tao frowned. He had heard of soldiers dying mysteriously after battles. Suddenly they would get extremely sick and develop a high fever causing them to die long after the fight was over. And she was right, he had stared at her chest for too long. Thinking of this he got concerned and asked. 'Can you help?'
She put her hand on her hips and lifted her chin proudly while saying. 'Well of course. I was raised in the church's orphanage. I'm the one and only warrior nun candidate named Mika. But what's your name?'
Tao was not surprised, she definitely had the physique of a warrior nun and the fighting skills of one. But he wondered. ' Ohh. I am Tao but do tell me If you are a part of the church then what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be helping the wounded and protecting the weak?'
'Hi hi hii!' she laughed. And continued. 'I sneaked out. All that religious stuff, it's not for me. I want to see the world. So I used this opportunity to get out.'
she then reached into her pockets and pulled out two coin bags and said with a smile. 'See? I have come here prepared.'
Seeing this Tao frowned and asked. ' Ohh. And where did you get all that coin?'
She just spread her hands and gestured to the corpses, and said. 'Easy. Just look around. There's a lot of easy pockets to pick.'
Tao felt disgusted looking at her carefree attitude. Looting bodies was definitely not ok. He had only done so because he had to, in order to survive but she just wanted their coin for her greedy ambitions.
She smiled and continued. ' What? Don't be so upset, they are just corpses. I'm sure they don't mind and besides you need me. And I need somebody to cover my back on the road. So what do you say, Tao? Are we partners or what?' she walked In front of him and extended her hand.
Tao looked down at the strange teen who barely reached his chest height and sighed. Grabbing her small delicate hand he said. 'Partners.'
With that said the duo walked away from the burning city and into the darkness of night.
***
As the duo walked peacefully into the night. A fierce battle was being fought at the castle's outer walls. The rats had decided to form a rat pile and we're trying to climb over the wall with it. Hundreds of archers fired down arrow's thinning the swarm, as the few men left with muskets pikked off the few remaining Rat-ogres.
As the rat's pike grew ever taller, coming close to the wall. The spearmen and Halberdiers joined the killing. With their long weapons, they poked the rats below. Some fast rats managed to grasp the spears and pull the men down off of the wall, where they were then ripped to pieces. Jesus and the Jesuits had also joined the fighting. Jesus had taken command and was now yelling orders at the troops and encouraging them to fight on.
***
In the back of the rat swarm stood a Molebear and on it sat a big black rat, grinning evilly as it watched the scene. A smaller rat stood at his side with a worried expression as it looked at it.
'What what is it? Speak, speak.' Ratbag said impatiently.
The small rat went to its knees and bowed, and said while shaking in fear.
'Ohh great and powerful swarm lord Ratbag, the t-the fire. It burn bad, bad. Many brethren die, die and food go, go away, way. No, no corpses all burn, burn. No big, feast, feast.'
Ratbag frowned not really understanding what the small rat said. The rats rat accent was strong, strong. But he did understand the general idea behind it's word's. The fire was bad and it had burned most of the city. And because of the fire, all the bodies were being burned. Meaning that they were losing precious food for the hive fast. Because of this, he sent rats to take prisoners and the bodies of humans to the main camp as fast as possible. 'No matter, everything is going according to plan.' Ratbag snickered out loud.'
Confused the small rat asked. 'W-what plan, plan?'
Hearing this Ratbag got furious and grabbed his mighty Two-handed Warhammer and crushed the rats skull, yelling. 'Shut up, up! Don't mock me, me.'
Seeing this the surrounding rats pissed themselves and ran off.
***
North of Cordoba on a dark forest road, thousands of heavily armored horsemen rode through the darkness, toward the raging inferno in the distance.
From the dark forest bushes red beating eyes watched. And then a metallic ear-piercing sound was heard. 'Kiiiiiiiii kiiiiiiiii, kiiiiii!' the sound carried all the way to the city, warning the rats of the coming danger.
*
Hearing this sound Ratbag pissed him self annoying the molebear as he yelled. 'Tactical retreat!' A horn was blown 'Kiiiiiiiii!' And all the rats pissed themselves and started to run away leaving behind an awful stench. They grabbed whatever body parts and edible food they could along the way as they ran.
The defenders were stunned, not believing their eyes. Until Lord Bispo yelled. 'Victory! We have Victory!' But only a small cheer could be heard that day. The enemy had been defeated but there was no song or celebration that night for the dead were beyond the count of grief, and there was no more city just a castle surrounded by ruins.
From the 12 thousand soldiers originally defending the city only a little less than a few thousand remained. From the 65 thousand inhabitants only about 2 thousand remained of which many would later succumb to their grievous wounds, as the medical technology was not advanced enough here. From all the people left only a few minor nobles were left. The Lord of Segres was still alive but he had been crippled losing his working legs and a son. Duke Faro and his eldest son were killed, somewhere in the fighting nobody could say as no bodies could be found. The Duke of Cordoba and his son were also dead Leaving the dukedom leaderless. With all these deaths a huge power vacuum had been created.
The reinforcing Iberian army had arrived but they were too late. The rats had fled back to Granadan lands, only leaving death and destruction behind. Though the rats had lost most of their number they had also managed to gain a lot of food for the Hive. With the extra food, they could refill their numbers fast.